Farmers Movement Archive

No celebrations, villagers burn copies of farm laws on Lohri

Ludhiana: With farmers protesting near Delhi borders, Lohri celebrations were subdued in the villages of the district. “How can we celebrate Lohri when around 25 villagers from our village are sitting at the dharna site, fighting for repealing of the farm laws. It is a matter of life and death for us. It is better to fight than die of hunger later. It has been Punjab’s culture to fight injustice. Of the 121 freedom fighters hanged to death during India’s freedom struggle, 96 belonged to Punjab. This clearly shows our spirit,” said Sukhjit Singh of Diwala village, which was not seen in celebratory mode on Lohri.In many villages, residents burnt copies of “black” farm laws and celebrations were low-key. “We cannot think of celebrating when about 70 farmers have achieved martyrdom fighting against the black laws. We burnt copies of these laws on Lohri. There was no festive spirit as happiness, which is a must for any celebration, was missing from villagers’ faces,” said Kamaljit Singh, a farmer from Chakar village. Manjeet Singh of Dhindsa village, who has been at Singhu border for the past about 45 days, said, “We haven’t celebrated the festival as we are fighting a battle for survival and know that our villagers are also not celebrating. We heard that they have burnt copies of the laws,” he said. “In 12,500 villages of the state, people have burnt the copies of agriculture laws. There are around 200 villages in Sidhwan Bet, Jagraon, Raikot, Hambran and Sudhar, and all these places saw burning of laws’ copies. We had 100 copies, which villagers took for burning on Lohri,” said Kanwaljeet Khanna, general secretary of Inquilabi Kendra Punjab. He added that unlike previous years, there was no dancing and singing around the bonfire.

The Times of India

2021-01-14

Ludhiana